Daily Ramblings

Re-launching DobberHockey take 2; thoughts on Couturier, Baertschi, the Penguins, the next lockout; and more...

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How did I know this would happen. Two days later, and I'm doing the Ramblings again on the old site. Well, if you're reading this mid-morning, hopefully you're reading it on the new site. If not, then I'm having a bad day.

Once you see this on the brand new site, you can go into the shop and the credit card system will work again. I kno

Fantasy Rankings

If NHL teams can call up a player from the minors to fill in for an injury/absence, why can't we at DobberHockey do the same thing? Some great hockey minds contribute to the Black Aces. So when we need content due to a sick or absent columnist, we pluck a recent one from the forum. This is an excellent audition for any up-and-coming writers who think they have the insight and skills to get into this business. Contribute, get noticed, and who knows? Perhaps we'll call you up from the minors next!

Growing up in the beautiful Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, ChrisPudsey has always had a passion for hockey. The current member of theRoyal Canadian Navy resides in a small community just outside ofHalifax NS with his wife and two children. Chris brings the very latest from the salary cap world – analyzing recent contract signings, breaking down the bargains and the busts and much more. Follow him on Twitter @chrispudsey.

In the weekly piece "Eastern Edge", Eric Daoust breaks down the latest fantasy information from the standpoint of the Eastern Conference - the streaks, the slumps, the line combinations and much more. Eric is the first student to obtain a Masters degree in Computational Science at Laurentian University. He has also had a passion for hockey since infancy and has been involved in fantasy hockey since 2001, starting up in sim leagues. Since then, he has moved on to participating in some of the most challenging roto and head-to-head leagues. He also covers the Montreal Canadiens in the Dobberhockey forum in addition to writing for Dobberprospects. You can find Eric on Twitter @DH_EricDaoust.

Despite never having laced up a pair of skates (except for those of his two young sons) and growing up in Red Sox crazed Massachusetts, Rick Roos has been a huge hockey fan nearly all of his life. Inspired by often wearing a Canadiens jersey to the old Boston Garden (it's a long story...) and living to tell about it, Rick started to join fantasy hockey leagues back in the 90s, where he found himself waiting eagerly by a fax machine for weekly stats updates. He has since been in - and won - leagues featuring elite fantasy hockey writers. In real life, Rick is an attorney, which made him the perfect choice to write his previous "Holding Court" column on DobberHockey, where he debated both sides of a fantasy hockey issue and rendered a verdict for readers to debate. Now he will do the same for "Cage Match".

Tom Collins, born and raised in a small town in Labrador, has been in hockey pools for about 15 years, and actually managed to win his keeper pool for the first time ever this past year. With a background in journalism and now living in Ottawa, he has been working hard to make sure his twin daughters cheer for the Canadiens instead of the Senators, a fight he is winning so far.

Anthony Lancione check in every Friday to dig deep on players of interest in fantasy circles. They walk you through the various statistical tools of Jay Arbuthnot's Frozen Pool at your disposal. He takes an in depth look at the Western Conference with the Wild West column. Based out of Toronto, Anthony is a BCom graduate from Ryerson University. Deemed the Statman dating back to his pre-teen years, Anthony has been running/participating in fantasy hockey leagues of all varieties since the 90’s.

With his Geek of the Week columns, Terry Campkin provides in-depth profiles of players who have great hidden value in fantasy hockey. Terry will also chime in from time to time with other articles that are powered by insights that he are powered by the tools at Fantasy Hockey Geek. Terry resides in Whitby, Ontario with his wife and two kids, where he spends most of his spare time at a rink or at home watching hockey. Follow Terry on Twitter: @T_Camp76

Dobber, Ian Gooding, Steve Laidlaw, Neil Parker and Michael Clifford take turns providing daily ramblings. They cover a wide range of topics including the latest hockey developments as well as some deeper thoughts to help you with your fantasy hockey teams. You can be assured that when you wake up in the morning there will be a new rambling on the main page ready for you to indulge.

Aaron Brouwer, author of the weekly columnThe IR Reportknows all about injuries as he has a Bachelor’s degree in Human Kinetics from Trinity Western University, gone through six knee surgeries over the last 10 years and now works as a full time firefighter in northern BC. Brouwer has been a poolie since 1992 and started writing fantasy hockey columns in 2009. Follow him on twitter @DH_AaronBro19.

Chris Wassel, author of Between The Lines, takes a hard look at the latest line combinations that may catch your fantasy fancy every Monday. Which lines have come together and which ones have broken up? Even the defensive pairings need fantasy love as well. If that is not enough, he runs the podcast "The Program" and he writes for the Hockey Writers and the Daily Faceoff along with several others. Twitter: @TheProgramBTR

Bob Fisher, author of Looking Ahead, analyzes the upcoming schedule every week and delivers the five best and worst teams for every seven-day period to help with starting lineup decisions. Fisher also gives insight into some of the top and bottom teams for the week as well as some savvy free agent pickups that are not owned in the majority of Yahoo leagues. Born and raised in metro Detroit and currently residing in Grand Rapids, MI, Fisher, a software engineer by day, loves anything hockey related and has been hooked on fantasy hockey for eleven-plus years. In addition to this article, he also runs his own playoff pool bracket website (Bob's Brackets).

In the weekly piece “Saturday Picks” Jonathan Coretti breaks down 6 NHL Saturday games and the winners for each. Most notably known for coining #GETTHATMONEY... Jonathan has been on a godlike run over the past 2 NHL seasons, handicapping at an incredible 69%. A majority of his work focuses on the sports wagering side of the NHL as well as daily fantasy pools held on Draft Kings. Jonathan delivers quality picks and fantasy advice to all those apart of the DobberHockey community. You can also catch Mr. Coretti on his own personal blog (www.holy-puck.com) on his spare time. Find Jonathan on Twitter @HolyPuckHockey.

Author of Rob Vollman's Hockey Abstract and Hockey Abstract 2014, and co-author of the five annual Hockey Prospectus Guides. Innovator of many advances in analytics including Player Usage Charts, Quality Starts, Setup Passes, Home Plate Save Percentage, Historical Player Projections, and League Translations. Featured writer on ESPN Insider and Hockey Prospectus since 2009, and Bleacher Report since 2013. Radio guest in 11 NHL cities, podcasts in 6 cities, and on five national programs, including Hockey Night in Canada radio

Glen Hoos, author of The Commissioner’s Office, moonlights as graphic designer for Dobber Sports, commissioner of the GFHL, and GM of his beloved Angels of Harlem. Glen lives in Aldergrove, BC with his wife and three daughters. Somehow he still manages to control the remote often enough to stay on top of all the latest hockey happenings. In his real life, Glen manages a growing restaurant chain with locations across North America. Glen can also be found on twitter @commishoffice

Demetrios Fragopoulos checks in every Sunday with what's driving him nuts. Throughout the week, as he peruses the many different hockey articles, he will do what all of us would love to do - pull one particularly disagreeable statement, get on his soapbox and tell the world why that statement is wrong. He'll even pick apart a DobberHockey writer's stance if he has to!

Darryl Dobbs has contributed to much of The Hockey News' fantasy content since 2002, including seven consecutive issues of The Ultimate Pool Guide. He has also contributed significantly to the Score Forecaster(2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 editions), and Pool Expert's draft kit, as well as several columns in Canadian newspapers, including the Vancouver Sun. He has also made several radio appearances (HF Radio, BIG105 in Red Deer, FAN 960, 640 Toronto, XM204). Dobber graduated from the University of Guelph with a Degree in Statistics and Minor in Mathematics. Currently, he resides in Pickering, Ontario with his wife Hemwanti and daughters Avery and Mackenzie. Follow him on Twitter (DobberHockey) or contact Dobber at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A hockey fan since he was old enough to say “Let’s go Flyers”, Zach Hopkins is a writer of the weekly article The Journey for Dobberhockey as well as a Flyers prospect scout for Dobberprospects. Aside from being a season ticket holder for the Flyers, Zach is a member of numerous fantasy hockey leagues utilizing different formats and runs a successful head-to-head league as well. A clinical pharmacist by trade, Zach most enjoys playing, watching and talking anything hockey with his four-year-old son Ben, who can name all 30 teams as well as most of their players. You can follow him on twitter @healedbyhockey.

Every Monday Doran Libin brings you a look into fantasy relevant players in the Western Conference. Doran has a BA and MA from the University of Windsor and an MBA from Simon Fraser University. He is a lifelong Calgary Flames fan, a Vancouver Giants supporter from day one and a recent convert to “fancy stats”. He has been to four WJHCs (Halifax, Vancouver, Calgary/Red Deer and Grand Forks), Calgary/Tampa game 5 (2004) and watched the Vancouver Giants win the memorial cup in person.

On the 15th of every month,Austin Wallacereleases theTop 100 Roto Players in fantasy hockey. Wallace is the video coach and hockey operations intern for the UBC Thunderbirds and is working towards a degree in Hockey Management at UBC.Austin, who also scouts for DobberProspects.com, can be reached on Twitter @austeane

Stuff from former regular columnists such as Chris Burns, Eric Maltais, Jacob Status,Jim Gunther and Jeff Angus, as well as guest columnists such as Gus Katsaros from McKeen's, Jon Press from Japer's Rink and more!

Search Dobber Sports

Daily Ramblings

Re-launching DobberHockey take 2; thoughts on Couturier, Baertschi, the Penguins, the next lockout; and more...

***

How did I know this would happen. Two days later, and I'm doing the Ramblings again on the old site. Well, if you're reading this mid-morning, hopefully you're reading it on the new site. If not, then I'm having a bad day.

Once you see this on the brand new site, you can go into the shop and the credit card system will work again. I know a few of you tried over the last two days and it was rejecting you. I didn't plan for that to be down for two days. Anyway, moving on….

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Gooding doesn't have his analysis of the Penguins moves yet as I write this, but I'm going to reflect on them here regardless. I think the Canucks got fleeced. While Sutter is a good hockey